The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Day 318 - 11/14/09 - Movie #318

BEFORE: This is the movie I should have watched right after "Three Kings," since it also details the search for gold in a desert - just in Mexico, not the Iraq. A true classic that I know very little about...

THE PLOT: Fred C. Dobbs and Bob Curtin, both down on their luck in Tampico, Mexico in 1925, meet up with a grizzled prospector named Howard and decide to join with him in search of gold in the wilds of central Mexico.

AFTER: Yeah, all I really knew about this film was the "We don't need no STEENKIN' badges!" line. We have a lot of fun with that at Comic-Con when they give us our badges for the event... But like a lot of famous movie + TV quotes, like "Beam me up, Scotty" - most people say the line wrong. The actual line in the film is "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!"

Bogart is a lot more expressive here than usual - he actually displays some emotion when he gets cheated out of a week's pay from a contractor. Then later, after spending a lot of time in the desert, he goes a little loco, and it's more real acting than I've ever seen from him.

Fred Dobbs (Bogart) and Curtin (Tim Holt), down on their luck in Mexico, finally get some cash after shaking down the contractor who owes them, and they decide to roll the dice as prospectors, with the help of Howard, the old man they met at the flophouse (Walter Huston). Howard not only knows how to find gold, he also knows what greed can do to a man, and that's what the movie is really about.

Dobbs and Curtin say that they'll quit after a certain amount is mined, but once they reach that threshhold, of course they want to keep going. They also promise to never fight or argue over the gold - so guess what happens?

The situation gets more complicated when their campsite is found by another prospector, and then by some Mexican bandits (they claim to be Mexican federales, with no need of the aforementioned stinkin' badges...)

So they decide to pull up stakes and head to town to cash in, but in order to do that, they have to rise above their petty greed - the ultimate message appears to be that man is, in essence, incapable of doing so, and that this is Dobbs' undoing.

RATING: 7 out of 10 burros

High Sierra

Day 317 - 11/13/09 - Movie #317

BEFORE: I should really watch that OTHER film starring Humphrey Bogart, with "Sierra" in the title - but I fell asleep early last night, so I'm short on time today - so far I haven't found a Bogart film I really like, but who knows...

THE PLOT: Roy 'Mad Dog' Earle is broken out of prison by an old associate who wants him to help with an upcoming robbery...

AFTER: I'm starting to nail down the reason WHY I don't like Bogart - it has something to do with his monotone and complete lack of expression. He's exactly the same in every scene, with no emotion - so he's not acting, or even reacting, it just feels like he's reading lines. I guess back in the 1940's, if a man showed any emotion, it was seen as a sign of weakness?

So, Bogie's a real tough guy by 1940's standards, but to me, he seems so stoic and boring that I've fallen asleep every time I've tried to watch "Casablanca," commonly regarded as one of the greatest films ever. But this film is no slouch - it predated "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon," and is considered one of the first film noirs.

This is partially due to its complex depiction of Roy Earle, who's something of an antihero. He's a thief, sure, but he also does some very charitable things with his loot, like paying for an operation so a young woman's club foot can be fixed. Of course, she's an attractive girl and Earle wouldn't mind marrying her down the line - so how altruistic is he being, really? Either way, we're supposed to root for him, even as he plans a heist of a casino on the California/Nevada border.

Henry Travers, best known as the angel Clarence from "It's a Wonderful Life", plays the father of Velma, the crippled girl (Joan Leslie). I'd heard of some of the other actors, like Ida Lupino, but the standout performance comes from a dog named Pard, one of the best dog acting jobs I've ever seen - this dog has more acting ability than Bogart!

So, it's an important film, if not an extremely flashy and entertaining one by today's standards.

RATING: 4 out of 10 police bulletins

Three Kings

Day 316 - 11/12/09 - Movie #316

BEFORE: Another caper film, but a special choice for Veteran's Day - set during the first Gulf War in 1991.

THE PLOT: In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, 4 soldiers set out to steal gold that was stolen from Kuwait, but they discover people who desperately need their help.

AFTER: I was a little worried at first - a movie about soldiers stealing gold might not set the right tone..but this movie is actually deep and complicated, much like the Gulf War itself turned out to be...

Archie Gates (George Clooney) and his crew (Mark Wahlberg and Ice Cube) learn that there's no such thing as a simple smash and grab - at least not while the Iraqi people are rising up against Saddam Hussein, and the Iraqi soldiers are either surrendering or killing rebels. Hoping to take advantage of the confusion, the U.S. soldiers meet some Iraqis who want to help them, and others who want to shoot them - and they're forced to team up with some refugees, who want passage to the border as well as some of the gold in return for their help.

The fourth U.S. soldier in the squad is played by Spike Jonze - I didn't know he ever did any acting - he's actually quite good as Conrad, the cornpone inexperienced country-boy soldier. Jamie Kennedy plays another soldier who spends most of the movie driving a reporter (Nora Dunn) around - and there's a quick cameo by comedian Jim Gaffigan as another soldier near the end.

This really fit the definition of a caper movie - lots of plot twists, a hidden treasure, high tension situations...

RATING: 7 out of 10 nerf footballs

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

Day 315 - 11/11/09 - Movie #315

BEFORE: Back-to-back films directed by Guy Ritchie - and another caper film set in Britain's underworld.

THE PLOT: Four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash.

AFTER: This was even less coherent than "Snatch" in some ways, and suffered from some of the same problems - like too many characters, for one thing. At least in "Snatch" the guys had more memorable names, here they're referred to with nicknames like "Big Chris", "Soap" and "Bacon".
And again, the thick Cockney accents made it difficult for me to follow the plot at times.

This time, a poker game gets fixed, and a card player named Eddie owes a gangster 500,000 pounds, which leads to a desperate need for four guys to raise cash within a week. Through the thin London apartment walls, one of them overhears their neighbors planning to rob some marijuna growers (I think...) so they make plans to rob the robbers. There's also a theft of some antique guns (the two smoking barrels mentioned in the title, I think...) which are then bought by the men planning to rob the robbers to pay the gangster (I think...). The London crime underworld is apparently very small, because the only person to sell the stolen pot to is the guy who was paying to have it grown in the first place (I think...) and he's not happy about having to buy back his own stolen weed. And the guy who wants the antique guns is also the gangster who fixed the poker game and set the whole plot in motion (I think...)

THEN things get confusing, and messy - yet somehow there's something classic about it all, like a Shakespearean comedy-of-errors, crossed with a Tarantino shoot 'em up. Oh yeah, and Sting's in the movie for a few minutes playing Eddie's father, since Sting's wife produced the film.

The moral of the story, beyond the usual "Crime doesn't pay", is to never assume things - every time a character makes a mistake, it's because they made a false assumption. Like assuming that no one can overhear them, or that the person behind them is unarmed... sort of like slapstick with very deadly consequences.

But when you have a gang of four characters planning to rob a gang of four characters who have just robbed another set of four characters, you can see how things can get very hard to follow. That's 12 people to keep track of, plus the gangster, his henchman, his enforcer, and the main drug dealer and his gang...

RATING: 6 out of 10 shoe boxes (7 for sheer inventiveness, less one for being so confusing)

Snatch

Day 314 - 11/10/09 - Movie #314

BEFORE: Another caper film, this one involving boxing promoters and a diamond heist...

THE PLOT: Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

AFTER: This is a tough one for me to classify - there are so many tough characters, with names like "Franky Four Fingers" (Benicio Del Toro) and "Bullet-Tooth Tony" (Vinnie Jones) that's it's hard to keep them all straight. And the thick British accents don't help...Brad Pitt plays Mickey, a "piker" with the worst accent of all - you simply can't understand a single line of his dialogue!

There's a huge diamond floating around, and it changes hands so many times, it was a challenge for me to keep track of who had it, and who was working for who. There's also a couple of fixed boxing matches, but Brad Pitt's character doesn't seem to understand how to take a dive - or does he?

Dennis Farina plays Cousin Avi, who flies over to London from the U.S. to track down the diamond, and he enlists Bullet-Tooth Tony, who's tougher than tough. How tough? Tough enough to be un-armed, go up against three guys with guns, and somehow come out on top in that exchange...this is the film that made a name for Vinnie Jones and future "Transporter" Jason Statham.

The film perks up a bit with some gorgeous slow-motion boxing footage near the end, but it's too little too late. I will point out a great car-accident scene that is shown from three different points of view in rapid succession.

RATING: 6 out of 10 ski-masks

Made

Day 313 - 11/9/09 - Movie #313

BEFORE: A "caper" film has a bit of a loose definition - it isn't a cop film or a crime film necessarily (though it could be) and it doesn't have to involve a scam (though it could). Wikipedia's definition says one should have an intricate plot woven around a group of people trying to steal something. Typically, there are many plot twits, and the film should focus on the characters' attempts to formulate a plan, carry it out, and escape with the goods.

I didn't have this film during boxing week, so I'm following up with it now.

THE PLOT: Two aspiring boxers, lifelong friends, get involved in a money-laundering scheme through a low-level organized crime group.

AFTER: Well, I'm glad I didn't include this one during boxing week, since there's only about 5 minutes of boxing in the beginning. This film stars Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn (so in a way it's a sort of sequel to "Swingers") as Bobby and Ricky, two friends who seem unable to get ahead in the world, working low-level construction jobs, and on the side Bobby is a driver/bodyguard for his girlfriend (Famke Janssen) when she works as a bachelor-party stripper.

Bobby's boss Max (Peter Falk) gives him a chance to perform a low-level job for his somewhat-shady organization, and Bobby brings in Ricky due to a debt of friendship. You know how in some crime films there's a couple of goons acting as bodyguards during an exchange? Well, this is like the back-story of those two guys. They're supposed to just be quiet and make the pick-up and then supervise the drop, but Ricky (Vaughn) can't be quiet for more than 2 seconds at a time. Vaughn plays an annoying douchebag very, very well.

So despite Ricky's best efforts, they keep messing up while working for Ruiz (Sean "P. Diddy" Combs) so they keep digging their hole deeper and deeper. Things get so bad that when Jimmy the Driver (Vincent Pastore) picks them up, they're never sure if they're going to the drop, or going to get whacked.

With cameos from 2 other Sopranos cast members (Federico Castellucio as a club doorman, and Drea DeMatteo as a club girl), and Dustin "Screech" Diamond. Also Sam Rockwell in a tiny role as a hotel bellboy.

RATING: 5 out of 10 pagers

The Hustler

Day 312 - 11/8/09 - Movie #312

BEFORE: I know I said that November made me think of movies about politics - but that last film had so many tricks and scams, it made me think of "caper" films - films about stings, heists and double-crosses (don't worry, I think this topic will lead me back to politics soon enough...). Let's keep going with sports-related scams + hustles.

THE PLOT: An up-and-coming pool player plays a long-time champion in a single high-stakes match.

AFTER: I feel like I got hustled myself this weekend, we went up to Yonkers to the Empire Casino for the third time. The first time we went, I won a few bucks, and the second time, I lost a bit. This time I had nothing but bad luck, the slots weren't paying off for me at all. Since I didn't recognize any of the same video slot machines from the last time we were there, I'm wondering if they swapped out all the old machines and replaced them with ones that just don't pay out as often. You know, let people win a few bucks in the new casino, show them a good time, then when everyone gets used to going there and they make it part of their routine, change the odds and tighten up the slots...

But we're here to talk about pool, which starts with "P" and that rhymes with "T" and that stands for trouble... Apparently the problem with being a great pool player is that when people recognize you as a great pool player, they won't play you for money, since they'll likely lose. Hence the hustle - making people think you're a lousy player, so they'll play you or bet big against you, which is when you start playing well and taking their money. Or so the theory goes.

"Fast Eddie" Felson challenges the great Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason), and they play in a 40-hour marathon, during which time Eddie gets up $18,000 - that would be a great time to quit and walk away, but Eddie can't seem to quit while he's ahead. So he keeps playing, the Fatman gets his second (or is it third?) wind, and gets his money back.

Eddie loses the match and his partner, then tries to battle his way back in a series of small-stakes games. He also hooks up with a girl, Sarah Packard (Piper Laurie), who likes to drinky-drinky, so he's got a lot of time to go play pool while she's blacked out. Eddie eventually hooks up with a new manager, Bert Gordon (George C. Scott) and travels with him to Louisville on Kentucky Derby Day, and they take Sarah along. Gordon arranges a match with local pool shark Findley, but it turns out Findley plays billiards, not pool (I wish the movie had taken a moment to explain the difference...)

I won't reveal what happens in Louisville, but it leads to a rematch between Eddie and Minnesota Fats. I wish I'd seen more of Jackie Gleason playing pool - the movie was more interesting when he was on-screen - the attire, the mannerisms, the accessories of a pool player all seem intriguing. For the effect of the hustle, all of these things - the way a player dresses, how much he drinks, the way he acts - they're all part of the con.

Piper Laurie played Sarah Packard, and later on "Twin Peaks" she played Catherine Martell, brother of Andrew Packard, and nemesis of her sister-in-law Jocelyn Packard - I'm wondering if this was an inside joke that I didn't understand at the time, or just a coincidence.

And of course I would like to see the sequel film "The Color of Money", as soon as some premium channel chooses to run it...so review to be continued then.

RATING: 5 out of 10 cue-sticks